Corrugated fastener stick



Aug 3, 1965 R. J. MOORE 3,198,057

CORRUGATED FASTENER STICK Filed DGO. l2. 1961 LD ro (D ro LL lo ro United States Patent C) 3,198,057 CORRUGATED FASTENER STICK Roland J. Moore, Richmond Hill, N.Y., assignor of one-half to Leonard H. King, Valley Stream, NX. Filed Dec. 12, 1961, Ser. No. 158,723 Claims. (Cl. 85--17) This invention relates to a continuous corrugated fastener strip composed of a plurality of adjacently disposed corrugated fastener elements which are disposable into the magazine of a device for driving such elements into a workpiece.

Corrugated fasteners themselves are, of course, old and until recently were driven into a workpiece by setting an individual fastener aga-inst the workpiece and then mechanically driving it home by means of a hammer or simil-ar tool.

With the advent of present day high labor costs, automatic machinery for driving such fasteners has come into use.

Conventional hydraulic or pneumatically-operated fastener driving equipment comprise a magazine in which are disposed a number of fasteners formed in a stick by adhesive bonding with one another. A typical machine in which the fastener sticks of this invention may be employed is shown, for example, in U.S'. 2,837,743. An opening is provided in the forward end of the magazine to accommodate the foremost member of the stick of fasteners. A driver blade is designed to impinge upon said foremost member of the strip, to sever it from the remainder of the stick, and to drive it into the workpiece. The conventional adhesively secured stick has a number of disadvantages which the present invention overcomes;

`for example, the adhesively secured stick is fragile. This results in breakage and considerable waste. The manufacturer and dealer are often harassed by returns of broken sticks, the damage occurring through misuse, dropping of the package, or normal shock occurring in the course of shipping. Because of the fragility of the adhesive stick, under the rules of the Interstate Commerce Commission rate classification system, the adhesively secured stick falls into a relatively high freight rate bracket. Gn the other hand, as will be discussed more fully hereinafter, the stick of this invention is not fragile, resulting in savings, ease of handling, absence of breakage in use, and the right to be classied in a shipping classification wherein freight charges are substantially reduced. An additional advantage of the more rugged features inherent in the stick of this invention is that simpler and less expensive packing means may be employed resulting in savings in packaging costs, shipping and storage space required.

Another advantage of the present invention is that the stick has indefinite shelf life, whereas, on the other hand, the prior art stick is known to have a limited shelf life because the adhesive tends to become brittle with age. The corrugated strip of this invention lends itself to the production of much longer sticks than is feasible with the adhesively collated type. For example, whereas a typical stick of the prior type is about 4 in length, a stick of this invention could be made 45 or even longer, to fit a magazine of suitable length.

Still a further advantage of the present invention, which will be more fully discussed hereinafter, is that more economical manufacturing procedures may be employed as the operation may be carried out on one machine as part of a continuous process, whereas the adhesively secured stick requires considerably more handling.

A further advantage of the present device is that it does not employ adhesive material which is cut off and can collect to ultimately jam the driving tool.

3,198,057 Patented Aug. 3, 1965 ice Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a nonfragile corrugated fastener stick for loading in a magazine fed driving tool.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a longer corrugated fastener stick than previously feasible.

Still a further object of this invention is to provide a stick of corrugated fasteners having indefinite shelf life.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a more conveniently handle stick of corrugated fasteners.

Another object of this invention is to provide a stick of corrugated fasteners not employing an adhesive.

A particular object of the invention is to employ a onepiece continuous strip folded into a stick suitable for insertion in the magazine of a driving gun.

These and still further objects `and advantages of the present invention will, in part, be pointed out with particularity and will, in part, become obvious as the following descritpion proceeds taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. l is a perspective view of a corrugated fastener being driven into ya pair of wooden workpieces.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of a fastener stick in expanded form.

FIG. 3 is a ow chart showing the manufacture of the fastener stick.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a method for manufacturing an alternative embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an end view of an alternative embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a top plan View of a fastener stick showing another method of securing the stick against expansion.

FlG. 7 is a plan view of a section of a blank during the process of manufacture.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a fastener 11 about to be driven into workpieces 9a, 9b. It will be noted that the individual fastener 11 has been severed from the balance of a stick 12 of such fasteners by the driver blade 10 of the fastener driving machine. Each of the corrugated fastener elements 11 in the stick 12 is formed with a plurality of latcralmost points 13.

Whereas in the prior art, a plurality of individual corrugated fastener members are collated together by means of adhesive into a stick, in carrying out the present invention the corrugated fasteners are formed in the continuous member folded upon itself accordion-like, as shown (in expanded form) in FIG. 2, and comprising a plurality of corrugated fasteners 11a, 11b, 11C, etc. Since there is a natural tendency for the folded member to expand, as shown in FIG. 2, it is necessary to provide means to keep the stick firmly clamped together in a compact assembly. Several methods of accomplishing this will be discussed hereinafter.

The foremost fastener may contact its succeeding fastener in either the conventional nested relationship employed in adhesively secured sticks, or in the later-almost point to lateralmost point relationship. If a nested arrangement is employed, it is preferred that the bending be carried out in such a way that the adjacent corrugated fasteners are separated slightly to permit the driver blade of the fastener driving machine to sever an individual fastener from the strip without interfering with the succeeding fastener.

The operation adapts itself to continuous production procedures.

Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown such a procedure. At station A, there is provided a supply `spool 2t) lof steel 22 -of suitable width and thickness, typically about 0.020" thick and about '1/2" Wide, the width being determined by the dimensions of the magazine of the particular gun for which the corrugated fastener is intended. As the material 22 is supplied from roll ture.

`carried out.

20, it is fed toa punch press operation at station B where a conventional stamping die stamps out a por-V l' a "a vide a pluralityof elongated elementsy having corrugationsextending completely across ktheir smaller dimen- V' sion, said elements including top and bottom end surfaces and having opposed 'side edges, any? two adjacent grinding operation mayalso be carriedout after the Y corrugating `operation and it is often, for some applications, preferred, as this provides a many-toothed structicular order in which the grinding and corrugating is The strip thenadvances to station E where folding `dies fold the strip, as shown. l At station F a suitable die bends over tongue 23 to secure the Y stick against opening tothe expanded position.v

A Again, for purposes of illustration only, an'enlarged fragment of two #adjacentfasteners are shown pictorially.

form no part of this invention and theiry construction Y Itis ,not germane to the invention as to the parv 'The foldingand bending dies are notshown since they elements being integrally joined byv relatively narrow U- Shaped'tab portions at one side edge and being free from connection at the other side edge, and tab portions being readily severable by an axial force applied to the top end surface of one of said adjacent elements, each of said elements having a series of relatively sharp penetrating points along the ybottom end surface thereof, said member including frangible retaining means secured to the integrallyjoined side edges thereof,'whereby said meniber is prevented from expanding.

2. TheA fastener stick of claim 1 wherein said frangible retaining means comprises an L-shaped tab clamping adjacent .elements at said integrally joined yside edges.

3. The fastener Vstick of claim 1 whereinV said frangible retaining means comprises weld-joints vat said integrally joined Vside .edges Vsecuring adjacent elements to each other.v

4. A corrugated lfastener stick in the form of a continuous elongated member folded upon itself to provide passed through a pair of grind wheels Si) which vgrind na" recess leaving tab portions 24 and 25. Corrugated and folded strip 29 is then tack welded, as by spot welder 31 (shown symbolically), to Vform *a cohesive Vclosely aligned stick 33.

top or bottom, for example,calong lines A--A and B-B without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Sincetabs 24 and 25 maintain the individual fasteners in the continuous strip, in lieu of welding, solder 34, for example, at the points shown in FIG. 6, can be'used toV prevent the stick from expanding. However, soldering .Y by present Vfday techniques is more expensive because of.

the needfor prior removal of grease and oilaccumulated during the forming procedures. A

Another way of preventing the stick from expanding is `to employ a pair'of round, flat, or other shaped restraining wires 40 welded tothe edges lof the fasteners 11, as shown in FIG. 5. In use, the wires arel fedV out of the driving Vgun curlingV up adjacent tothe gun forf later disposition.

' FIG. 7 shows a section of a steel'stripSS provided with simple rectangular cut-outs Y3:6. The perforated strip is sion, as disclosed earlier. A f

corrugated, ground, folded, Vand secured against .expan-V e Having disclosedV the best embodiment vof thel inven.V l

tion presently contemplated, what is claimed is a vplurality of elongated elements having corrugations cextending'completely across'their smaller dimension, said elementsv including top .and bottom surfaces and having `opposed side edges, any two adjacent elements being kintegrally joined byfrelatively narrow U-shaped tab portions at Yone side edge, ls aid ifastener stick further comprising a pair ofwires secured to opposite sides of said folded memberl to integrally join any two adjacent elements along both side edges thereof, said wires being readilyrseverable by an axial force'applied tothe top Vend surface of one of saidadjacentelements, each of said elementsl havingv a series of relatively sharp penetrating points along the bottom' end surface thereof.

,5.V The fastener stick Vof claim V4 kincluding weld joints securing said pair of wires to'said adjacent elements.

References Cited rbythreiEiraminer Y .UNITED STATES PATENTSy v 427,632 'j 5/90 Starr a-; 10-34 1,026,050 5/'12 vReberV 1-56 Y 1,106,938 8/14 Greenfield v.. 85--17 1,129,968v 3/15 Engler-t 85-11 1,465,783 8/23V Polzer 85-17 1,981,869 11/34 McFaul 10-'34 2,433,914V lv/48 Lang Q f 85-317 Y 2,574,219 d 11j/5 1 Marsden 85-49 f 2,942,267/l 6/60 Cusumano ---.L 85-11 2,969,585. y. 1/61 Smith 29-413 3,044,921 7/62 .'Wentworthk et al.

3,083,369V 4/673 Peterson 1-56 3,086,624 4/63 Wyatt.

1. A corrugated fastener `stick in the formof at con- 'Y tinuousV elongated Vmember 'folded vupon ritself to pro-l EDWARD C. ALLEN, Pfimry Examiner.

HnNsoN woon, JR., CARL vw.-'roML1N, c, f Examiners. 

1. A CORRUGATED FASTENER STICK IN THE FORM OF A CONTINUOUS ELONGATED MEMBER FOLDED UPON ITSELF TO PROVIDE A PLURALITY OF ELONGATED ELEMENTS HAVING CORRUGATIONS EXTENDING COMPLETELY ACROSS THEIR SMALLER DIMENSION, SAID ELEMENTS INCLUDING TOP AND BOTTOM END SURFACES AND HAVING OPPOSED SIDE EDGES, ANY TWO ADJACENT ELEMENTS BEING INTEGRALLY JOINED BY RELATIVELY NARROW USHAPED TAB PORTIONS AT ONE SIDE EDGE AND BEING FREE FROM CONNECTION AT THE OTHER SIDE EDGE, AND TAB PORTIONS BEING READILY SEVERABLE BY AN AXIAL FORCE APPLIED TO THE TOP END SURFACE OF ONE OF SAID ADJACENT ELEMENTS, EACH OF SAID ELEMENTS HAVING A SERIES OF RELATIVELY SHARP PENETRATING POINTS ALONG THE BOTTOM END SURFACE THEREOF, SAID MEMBER INCLUDING FRANGIBLE RETAINING MEANS SECURED TO THE INTEGRALLY JOINED SIDE EDGES THEREOF, WHEREBY SAID MEMBER IS PREVENTED FROM EXPANDING. 